Dictionary

actuality en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌækt͡ʃuˈælɪti/

Etymology

From actual + -ity. * (television): Influenced by French actualité.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state of existing; existence.
2. (countable, uncountable) An instance or quality of being actual or factual; fact.
   • "It seems as though I have lived this life always. The world of books and bookish folk is very vague, more like a dream memory than an actuality. I surely have hunted and forayed and fought all the days of my life. And you, too, seem a part of it. You are -- " I was on the verge of saying, "my woman, my mate," but glibly changed it to -- "standing the hardship well." 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
3. (countable, uncountable) Live reporting on current affairs.
   • A cabled despatch is better than nothing, but a voicecast of tolerable quality is preferable, and in certain types of story a voicecast with live or recorded actuality is best of all. Correspondents all have portable tape recorders. 1964, European Broadcasting Union, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 83, page 22:
   • This is a news report from the scene of the event. When a voicer and an actuality are combined into one complete story, it's known as a wrap. 2005, Alan R. Stephenson, David E. Reese, Mary E. Beadle, Broadcast Announcing Worktext, page 164:
4. (countable, historical, uncountable) A short early motion picture.
   • By 1903, the actuality film had reached its peak; in 1903, the Edison and Biograph companies, combined, registered three hundred fifty one actuality films for copyright protection. By 1908 that number had dropped to two. 1999, “The Variety Stage collection”, in Selected Materials from the Library of Congress:

Forms

Deriveds

in actuality · nonactuality

Translations (17)

fi aktuaalisuus (the quality of being actual or factual) · it attualità (the quality of being actual or factual) · fi tosiasiallisuus (the quality of being actual or factual) · el επικαιρότητα (the quality of being actual or factual) · ro actualitate (the quality of being actual or factual) · es realidad (the state of existing) · tr gerçeklik (the state of existing) · nl werkelijkheid (the quality of being actual or factual) · it realtà (the state of existing) · nl feit (the quality of being actual or factual) · pt realidade (the quality of being actual or factual) · fi olemassaolo (the state of existing) · ota حقیقت (the quality of being actual or factual) · ota كرچك (the quality of being actual or factual) · ar وَاقِعيّة (the state of existing) · pt existência (the state of existing) · nl realiteit (the quality of being actual or factual)